1. Introduction
There are many reasons to attend a metal festival. Enjoying good music for example. Or meeting awesome people while enjoying a few pints of beer. Or just escaping from the highbrow everyday society and celebrate a weekend of anarchy. In case of Eisenwahn Festival in the middle of Germany there are a few extra reasons. One of them probably is to get your neck trained for the upcoming weeks of metal madness in Central Europe, that is Sziget, Wacken, Party.San, Brutal Assault, Ieperfest, Mountains of Death, Summer Breeze, Pukkelpop or all those other occasions that make a metalhead's summer worthwhile. Another reason is to enjoy the cozy atmosphere of a small festival which in its seven years of existence hasn't tried to grow over the 2000 visitor margin, but stuck to the "by fans for fans" attitude instead. And then there are people who like to get their genitalia signed by their stars. But that's a completely different story. For now let's just stick with the music.

The festival's attitude might not have changed, the musical taste of band manager Johannes "Laudi" Laudenbach however has. While in 2006 the emphasis still was on pagan metal, the last few years have seen a significant shift towards death metal which by 2010 makes up nearly the entire lineup. Headliners Destruction and Die Apokalyptischen Reiter still ensure some variety, but classic death by Grave and Illdisposed, brutal death by Fleshgod Apocalypse and Epicedium, slam death by Katalepsy and Mastication Of Brutality Uncontrolled and death/grind by Japanische Kampfhörspiele and Boiler clearly show what kind of audience the festival actually tries to cater to. So get your necks ready, unleash your hair and hop on for a brutal ride in the middle of nature!

2.1 Forporgent
And local openers Forporgent impressively paved the way for the rest of the weekend. Pounding death metal with a few melodic hooks made for the most powerful opening act the festival has seen so far. Their music wasn't really special, but it instantly got you into the right mood.

2.2 Voice Of Revenge
Voice Of Revenge are another local band with a very similar style: generic death metal with some melodies here and there, which - despite its lack of originality - was a lot of fun. Fun has also been had by the musicians who emanated a lot of energy which apparently didn't only impress some visitors: only a few weeks after this performance the band managed to ink a record deal.

2.3 HatredHatred aren't new to the scene and are not really in need of a record contract either. These German thrashers know their thing and they know it exceptionally well: relentless thrash metal right in the kisser and a great stage presence made for some perfect moshpit material. A pity they got such an early slot and so the storm they've summoned was over after merely thirty minutes.

2.4 Dark Age
Speaking of great stage presence, that really wasn't Dark Age's thing. Their melodic death metal was quite decent actually, especially due to the effective use of keyboards, but only Eike, the band's singer and guitarist, stood out optically. He also stood out musically as his clean vocals sounded just too much like what we're used of the more modern permutations of heavy metal and which gave the whole set a rather bitter taste.

2.5 Abrogation
And we continued with melodic death metal. Abrogation forwent any clean vocals and stuck to exclusively German lyrics which gave them a special sound in the context of the festival. Generally speaking they were a bit too reminiscent to their fellow countrymen of Totenmond though which sounded quite okay for a while, but got pretty boring after thirty minutes.

2.6 Fleshgod Apocalypse
After all this melodic stuff it was high time for some serious business! Fleshgod Apocalypse, who filled in for their fellow Italians Hour Of Penance, served a dish of brutal death metal of the fiercest kind, garnished with classically inspired intermezzi to let the audience take a deep breath before they went on with the brutality. Unfortunately the sound wasn't that great during their performance, and unfortunately the crowd was quite measly during FGA's performance.

2.7 Katalepsy
This situation changed as soon as Katalepsy took the stage; it was apparent that this Russian wrecking ball was one of the main reasons for many people to attend this festival. Slow, groovy, brutal as fuck and with the elegance of a T-10 tank Katalepsy totally steamrolled the entire audience! Frontman Mirus interacted a lot with the crowd, jumped onto the loudspeakers in the photo pit and displayed a very expressive performance while the rest of the band constructed an impressive framework of midtempo death metal with occasional bursts of velocity, just like slam death metal is supposed to be.

2.8 Dew-Scented
Time for some thrash fun again! Dew-Scented delivered a very energetic show with a lot of verve and fun - at least the drummer could be seen grinning throughout the entire set. Other than a very likeable performance Dew-Scented served us some death/thrash metal of the best kind, similar to Slayer, just with less lights, but more balls, and with a Turbonegro cover as the proverbial cherry on top.

2.9 Grave
Mighty and massive, pounding and gut-wrenching! Stockholm's Grave proved once again why they are one of the best death metal bands in the world. Frontman Ola Lindgren didn't only sound pissed off as fuck, he also was pissed off as fuck! Especially when a stagehand started to mess with his amp Ola unleashed his wrath upon him. The audience cheered when he violently pushed him away and was in general extremely pleased by the Swedish quartet's relentless onslaught.

2.10 Destruction
Teutonic thrash legends Destruction seemed a bit irritated, most likely because of the small size of the stage and of the festival as a whole. This also affected their set which was solid and ripping as always, but not as dynamic and energetic as usual. And unfortunately they didn't bring the Mad Butcher and his babes with them who would have improved this Destruction a lot. A very good gig nonetheless, but far from outstanding.

3.1 New Born Hate
New Born Hate were formerly known as Agoraphobia and gained a bit of regional fame under that moniker. I have no idea why they had to change their name, but I do know that their music was quite decent melodic death metal, perfect to get you in the mood for the second and last day of the festival. As many melodeath bands they had two vocalists, one for growls and one, no, not for clean vocals, but for thrash metal-style shouts instead. This didn't only help them to separate themselves from the semi-metalcore melodeath bands, but also increased the fun factor of the band immensely.

3.2 Epicedium
Sterile, emotionless and technical brutal death metal, that's what Epicedium from Frankfurt are known for. And that's what they delivered on this particular day as well. Technically they were quite impressive - which was quite a feat in itself as drummer Rob and vocalist Tommy were binge-drinking for the past few days - and their show wasn't bad either. Whoever was craving some relentless brutality again got exactly what they needed.

3.3 Boiler
My very first association with the name Boiler was the Limp Bizkit song of the same name. Rest assured, they have absolutely nothing in common. The quartet - consisting of a growler, a squealer, a guitarist and a drummer - delivered death/grind with an attitude, most of the time similar to Rompeprop, but at times also quite reminiscent to The Rotted. And if the music didn't do the trick for you, then the band's free CD give-aways might have done the job.

3.4 Mastication Of Brutality Uncontrolled
MoBU is yet another slam death metal band on the festival's billing. Several metal bands from the region have joined forces for a joint internet community dubbed "Mainblast" (named after the river Main). This cooperation continued on a musical level and so members of Epicedium, Hateprison, Retaliation, Clit$split and Incesticide formed this beast called Mastication Of Brutality Uncontrolled in order to celebrate slam death metal with immature lyrics, such as "The Power of the Golden Shower" or "Raped by a Gang of Shemale Virgins." The band made a decent impression, but the lacking routine made it apparent that this was only their second gig.

3.5 Retaliation
Until the day before Retaliation didn't even know that they would be playing at this festival, but Grind Inc. had to cancel due to illness and as Retaliation were at the festival anyway it was a no-brainer that they'd be filling the void. And of course they also played some kind of death metal. At this point I've started to get bored by the lack of variety of the billing and decided to take a break.

3.7 Illdisposed Signing Session
I've hinted at it in the introduction already: the signing sessions were a bit special this time around. Denmark's death metal battalion Illdisposed were the first to witness this particular fact - one guy was climbing up the counter of the autograph booth, got his crotch on the same level as singer Bo Summer's face, dropped his pants and asked for an autograph on his scrotum! It might be added that he got 50 € from a friend for this particular deed. Suffice it to say that lulz have ensued for everyone else as well. If you don't mind nudity, feel free to check out the pic of the result at this location.

3.8 Final Breath
The guys of Final Breath haven't released any new material since 2004, but still have an enormous fan base, especially because they used to organize the legendary Up From The Ground festival until 2007. People had a lot of time to learn the lyrics and so it was no surprise that the crowd was shouting, screaming or growling along to most of these death/thrashers' songs. Final Breath also presented a few new songs which are about to be recorded in a not-so-distant future, which sounded exactly the same as their old material, but which was very positively received by the audience nonetheless.

3.9 Die Apokalyptischen Reiter Signing Session
So you thought getting your genitalia signed is a male thing only? Think again! It's quite a pity my camera wasn't at the autograph booth during DAR's signing session because this time around a girl dropped her panties to get her vulva signed! Yeah guys, enjoy the thought of it while I enjoy the pictures, which I'm not permitted to publish though. But maybe you are lucky and Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, who have taped the whole incident, might take the risk to release an X-rated DVD...

3.10 Illdisposed
"Die eierlosen Nutten aus Dänemark" (= the ball-less whores from Denmark) - that's how Illdisposed introduce themselves at German gigs - weren't only good at jesting and placing pens on certain body parts, but also at death metal. Heavy, groovy and old-school death metal has been somewhat rare at this fest despite of the high number of death metal bands in general, so Illdisposed were quite a treat for everyone who isn't too much into the more modern styles of death metal. Everyone else has probably had a good time as well, thanks to Bo Summer's lamentations about bassist Kloge's absence who "fucked up" by getting his wife pregnant and due to his health tips which might have been a bit below the belt for some people though ("What has the Loveparade taught us? That techno isn't good for you!").

3.11 Die Apokalyptischen Reiter
Eventually the most melodic band of the whole weekend had the honour to close the festival. Unlike Destruction Die Reiter didn't feel irritated by the small stage and just did their thing. As usual their set consisted mostly of new material from their latest two albums, which made for quite a nice change from all the grinding, slamming and brutal death metal of the weekend, even though many attendees would've probably been happier if they had played stuff from their first few albums when they still played death metal themselves.

But even those people in the crowd were bound to be overwhelmed by the sheer energy, spontaneity, special effects and interactivity of the band. That includes humongous balloons for the people to play with, a waltz with a lady from the crowd during "Seemann", the same lady being returned to the crowd in a huge rubber dinghy, fountains of fog, hydraulic platforms and a lot more. All in all a more than worthy finale for an awesome weekend and certainly a redeeming point for everyone who feared that Eisenwahn has become too brutal compared to the past editions.

4. Conclusion
And so the seventh edition of Eisenwahn Open Air is history. What remains is the memory of a great festival with some very interesting moments and an unfortunately rather one-sided billing. For now the festival can still rely on its regular visitors, but if Eisenwahn doesn't manage to stay interesting for a wide audience I'm afraid it might lose a lot of visitors to other festivals in the area which cover a broader scope of metal styles, a development which could already be seen at this year's edition. The organizers have promised that Eisenwahn 2011 is gonna happen, despite several rumours. Let's hope they manage to adapt to the recent developments in Germany's open air scene.

Photos by Daniel "Promonex" Pereira of Metal Storm.
All rights reserved, do not use without permission.